Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductor layers of material over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon.
Integrated circuits (ICs) are fabricated on semiconductor wafers, and each wafer typically contains hundreds or thousands of individual integrated circuits, depending on the size of the wafer and the size of the individual integrated circuits. Between the integrated circuits are spaces, known as “cutting grooves (or scribe lines)”, which separate the individual integrated circuits on the wafer. In a process known as “cutting”, wafers are cut along the cutting grooves to form separate integrated circuits, known as “dies”.
Although existing cutting apparatuses and methods have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects.